Next Vacation Spot?

Red Heart TLC Essentials in Surf & Turf and Falling Leaves - Knit Picks Simple Stripes in Farbe Partie - Stitch Studio by Nicole (not sure the color) - James C Brett Baby Marble in BM1 (pink) and BM13 (blue)

   While on our last trip to the cabin my dad was trying to fix the fact that the sink in the main floor bathroom was slow to drain.  The p-trap wouldn't come off which lead to something breaking, which lead to needing a new sink.  Bill and my dad went to Lowe's and my dad asked about the abandoned looking building across the way.  Turns out it was previously The DeJarnette Sanitarium.  People have been going there to either just check the place out or to vandalize it.

Red Heart Fiesta in Platinum - Red Heart Super Saver in Mexicana

  I think it would be really cool if the owners fixed it up a little and had ghosts tours.  It definitely looks like it would be haunted.  If they felt really adventurous, they could hire haunt actors around Halloween and open it like a Haunted House.

  I found a blog post about it here and an article about Joseph DeJarnette on Wikipedia.  Sounds like he wasn't a great guy and you definitely didn't want to get sent there.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 21 (0)
Yarn Out: 32 (1)

Total: -11

Very Lucky 13 Months

Week 52:

  I put all her books back on her bookshelf because otherwise how would she be able to take them all off again.  She waited patiently until I was done and then went to work.

  She has started headbutting people.  I'm not sure where she got it from and I hope you doesn't hurt her little head, but I know she is having a great time with it.

  She is talking more and more.  It's so fun for her to try making new words.  Ah-bomb-buh-way is still my favorite so far.

  Watching her move some of your food around is really funny.  Out of the bowl, one by one, and some go on the right side of the tray and others on the left.  Some then get put back into the bowl.

  When she woke up after her nap on Monday I noticed that a molar had broken through on the bottom right.  She wouldn't let me inspect to see if there were any more.

  The doctor said that her problems with bedtime are that she is trying to show her strong will against us.  We just have to show her that when it's time for bed, that is what we are doing.  We were warned that once her social urge grows she will fight us on it more and more.  We were given permission to let her complain about it up for an hour and that once we told her Good Night that we had to be strong and not go back in until an hour had passed.

  At her one year she was 19lb 6oz(43%), 30.75"(93%) tall with a 18"(71%) head circumference.

  She's starting to remember if a toy has more than one part to it.  There is a little puzzle toy where you put a cylinder with a tiny knob on it into a matching hole in a block.  At one point Tank distracted her and she left the block in her room and lost the cylinder in the hall.  She found the cylinder on the way back into her room and then looked for the block so she could continue playing with them.

  She has seen us "hide" things behind our backs often enough that when she snags something that she thinks we will take back, she will now put them behind her back.

  She has experienced me wiping her arms off when she is splashing after meals enough times that she has started doing it.  So far she only helps wipe the top of the right arm, but it's better than nothing.

Week 53:

  While at Texas Roadhouse for Steven's birthday she got to try the honey butter.  I think she liked the roll better.  She also got better at using a straw in a cup.

  She is getting really good at shaking her head "no".  She gives us a big smile after she does it.

  She has been having a lot of fun playing on her own by putting water bottles upright.  She will also move them from one spot to another.  She has noticed that the ones with more liquid are easier to do, but will do it when all of them.

  We took a long road trip to Kentucky.  On the way Miss Spud was yelling and though she was trying to tell us what was wrong, we didn't follow what she was saying.  We stopped at the first Rest Area we saw.  While we were letting her crawl around on the grass a little girl wanted to give her a flower.  The little girl ended up getting too nervous to actually give it to her, but we got it from her family member.  Her other family member joked that he didn't give other men's women flowers, so that's why he couldn't give us the flowers after he cut them for the little girl.

Week 54:

  She enchanted Missy and Heather at the Lee House Inn.  She went right into the kitchen after breakfast and showed off her stepping skills.  Missy mentioned that she keeps telling them to get a high chair and booster seats for the few times they get babies or other little ones.

  On Saturday Frankie's Invited Guests put on two shows of Rocky Horror.  We only stuck around for the first one.  She ate a bunch of snacks in her wagon during the show and even helped with callbacks during it at one point.  When we got back to our room she then ate 1.5 chicken strips.  She insisted on putting the last bit into a cabinet.  She would open the door, drop the piece in, and then close the door.  When I told her that she needs to eat her chicken she would get it out again, but then put it right back.

  Her playard was in the flow of the AC unit and it felt a lot colder in the room on the second night.  I gave her a bottle and she was mostly out.  I had to nurse her some after transferring her.  She woke up again as I was finishing zipping the opening.  I crawled back in to let her nurse some more, but she just laid down and was out again once I blocked the airflow.

  On the drive home I saw Miss Spud licking her toes.  She had her mouth open with her tongue hanging out and was moving her foot back and forth across it.

  She is using her big brain to figure out how to get into things she ain't supposed to.  She's tall enough to reach things near the edge of her short bookcase.  To help her overcome this she has taken to standing on the breast pump or a Tupperware container that we keep forgetting to take down to the kitchen.  I moved them so she wouldn't stand on them, but she just climbed into the crate and stood on them and became even taller. 

  When she was smaller, she would try and roll when we would go to change her diaper.  She stopped doing that and it and I felt relieved because it wasn't too hard to hold her down, but it was inconvenient.  She has now started rolling again.  The problem is that she is much stronger now.  She tilts her head back as a pivot point and uses her legs to flip herself over.  If you hold one leg up she just swings the other one over.  If you try and hold her other leg down, she just changes which direction she is rolling in.  She giggles and is having a wonderful time, until she isn't.  When she starts to get frustrated because you won't let her roll over and stand up on her changing table she will start to flail and roll.  She kicks anything else on the changing area off; like her wipes, piddle pad, and new diaper.  I've tried to give her very distracting things, but she wants to roll to pay attention to them.  The really funny thing is that once you get her diaper changed and she is all cleaned up is when she becomes fine to just lay there.

Week 55:

  Bev asked if I was raising the perfect baby at knitting.  She was happy enough to eat her lunch and snacks in her wagon and didn't fuss to be let out the entire time we were there.  I kept waiting for her to get restless, but she just kept playing.

  She has been practicing her walking and is starting to get pretty good at it.  It is still slower for her than crawling, so if she needs to get somewhere quickly, she will still choose her stomping crawl.

  She knows about object permanence, so she loves to put things into bags and pull them back out.  She has taken to trying to pull on our clothes to see what we may be hiding in there.  Pockets make sense, but she will also pull up the bottom of your shirt, pull down the neck of a shirt, or try and pull down pants/shorts.

  She is not gentle on books.  She has fully ripped apart her LovEvery Squish book.  She was trying to get another book to close the wrong way and snapped the pages off the spine on one side.  I've had to stop her from ripping mine and Bill's books already too.

  She's getting really good at helping us to dress and undress her.  She loves putting her arms through sleeves and will sometimes try and pull something over her head.  In the morning, if we unzip her sleep sack, she is able to pull it off all by herself.  She will even try and hang it over the side of her crib, like she's seen us do.

  We went to lunch with Auntie Mary and she ate so many pieces of my sushi rolls.  She had 4 avocado roll pieces, 3 California roll pieces, and 2 eel roll pieces.  Since we got a late start for lunch, all of that was after her banana and peanut butter puffs she had at home.

  We were low on diapers, so I left her to play with Tank in her room and the hallway while I finished getting dressed and brushed my teeth.  I noticed that everyone was being too quiet.  When I got out I saw the door to the hallway bathroom open.  She had opened the door and was grabbing fistfuls of litter pellets to dump onto the ground.  We then took a bit of time to wash her off before we could head to Giant.

  She is starting to really understand when I ask if I can see what she found on the floor that I would like for her to put it in my hand.  She doesn't always let go of it when she taps it on my hand.  This really helps when she finds a bead or some fiber tufts from Tank's scratching post.  When she finds snacks then I ask if she would like it back, if it's something she shouldn't be eating I tell her it's yucky and take it away.

Week 56: First Part

  She is starting to learn to get things when I ask for them.  I can ask her Can you get that for me? and point to something.  She doesn't always get it, but it's starting to come together for her.

  The dinner group we sometimes meet with had a gathering for the September birthdays.  Miss Spud was being more fussy than usual and only ate three quarters of her banana and some rice.  When everyone else was mostly done eating she got a hold of one of the small balloons on a stick.  She was having a great time moving it around and inspecting the seam on the side.  She really started having a great time when she got a second one.  She was hitting them together and was waving them around, hitting everyone around her.  She played with them in the car on the way home and was determined to keep ahold of them at home, even though they made walking and crawling harder.

  I was going through her clothes and pulling the ones we knew were too small.  In the back of her drawer I found the long sleeved shirts Bill had picked out.  They were 9mo and I was nervous that we had missed the chance for her to wear them.  However, her Old Navy 12mo pants still fit, and her 3-6mo Cloud Island long sleeve onesies fit her width wise, but won't snap anymore.  The only thing we had on Sunday night for her to wear under her sleep sack with long sleeves were the shirts.  I decided to give them a try and though the sleeves are verging bracelet length, the shirts still fit.  The torso is even a bit baggy.

  I didn't get to see it, but before Bill left for work on Monday he was watching Miss Spud gently pet Tank.  She then laid her head down on his stomach.  I remember doing that to Snowflake when I was little a few times.  When he went to get his phone out to take a picture she got excited to see the phone and lifted her head.

  At boardgame night Miss Spud was having a great time crawling over to the stairs and going up them.  She giggled so hard when we would catch her.  She even got to practice safely going down stairs.

  When checking out at Wegmans she managed to grab the Grana Padano off the conveyor belt.  The cashier noticed it and Bill gave it back to her to hold after it got scanned.  By the time we had finished paying and got to the truck, Miss Spud had managed to pick at the packaging enough to get the plastic torn in a corner and was getting small pieces off with her fingernail.  Bill took it right before she was going to try and take a bite out of it.  She was annoyed with us the whole ride home.

  I was packing for her and she managed to grab a large skein of white yarn off the table.  She was then laying down and using it like a pillow when I looked back.  I tried to get a picture, but she got too excited when she saw my phone and wouldn't lay her head down again.

More Hats?

Pattern: aMAZEing Dice Hat by Wyvern Knits - Yarn: Lion Brand Ice Cream in Mint #208 and Stylecraft Special DK in Parma Violet - Hook: 5mm

  I wasn't sure which technique I wanted to try to convert the knitting pattern into a crochet pattern.  I have been wanting to try mosaic crochet out, so I tried that first.  It worked well enough.  I don't know if my yarn and hook combination wasn't the best for it, or if I'm a fan of the lines it creates.

  One big complaint that I have about the Mint yarn is that it loves to unravel itself.  I would pull a few rounds off to give myself some to work with, but when I would look down, a few more around would be off of it, still perfectly coiled.

Rolls I got for this hat: worked <~ and /\

  Seam
2(B) - 2(B) - 1(A) - 2(B)
6(F) - 2(B) - 2(B) - 1(A)
1(A) - 1(A) - 6(F) - 6(F)

  Brim

 

Pattern: aMAZEing Dice Hat by Wyvern Knits - Yarn: Lion Brand Ice Cream in Mint #208 and Stylecraft Special DK in Parma Violet - Hook: 5mm

  I then tried to use half-double crochets along with front-post double crochets.  I liked how it makes the lines smoother.  However, if I just worked in the round normally it would shift where the stitches sat towards the right with each round.  I'm working full rounds and not in a spiral, so there were a few ways I could try and fix this.

  I could slip stitch over one at the beginning of every other round, but that would mean that the markers would shift every other row.  That might be confusing for some people if anyone else wants to try it this way.

  I could also just go into the correct colored stitch that was below the one I was working with, ignoring if it matches up with the count from the row below it.  Since I'm working rounds and joining, it wouldn't actually matter if the numbers matched.

  I could have just ignored that the starting spot kept shifting, but I'm working it as a Cat Hat, I don't like the fact that my row starting point would just be moving every row.

  RealisticYoghurt131 on Reddit mentioned an interesting technique used by Lakeside Loops in her 'Local Has My Heart' Market Bag FREE Crochet Pattern Video Tutorial.  I tried making a swatch with it and I liked it, but the stitches were very thick looking.  I tried to use the same technique, but with a sc2tog since the hdcs were too tall.  It looked a lot like regular hdcs, but a bit shorter.  Since these are still taller than a regular sc, I had to use treble crochets for the drop-down stitches.

  I think that will help, because if each color is only one row, instead of the two on the pattern, then doing the brim of the hat won't really work since she has decreases every row.

Rolls I got for this hat: worked <~ and /\

  Seam
1(A) - 6(F) - 1(A) - 1(A)
3(C) - 6(F) - 2(B) - 6(F)

4(D) - 3(C) - 1(A) - 5(E)
  Brim

  When working on each one, I didn't like how it was coming out.  Since they have sat for a bit, I like both of them.  I think I'm going to try and make another with worsted weight yarn and a decrease brim to see how that turns out.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 21 (4)
Yarn Out: 31 (1)

Total: -10

Poly-fill Variety

   I think it's interesting that I've not managed to get two bags of Poly-fil with the same texture twice.  The bag I had open for many years felt a bit cheap and scratchy.  The one I finished before I open the 5lb box felt smoother, but otherwise about the same.  The box filling felt very soft, smooth, and springy.  I recently got another bag for free because of Bev and an estate sale.  It feels very soft and dense, like a hearty cotton candy.  I thought it was fitting to switch over to the bag based on the free Poly-Pus pattern on the back.  I have another bag that I got that feels so soft and luxurious that I almost don't want to use it, I just want to pet it and squish it.

Loops & Threads Soft Classic in Arctic - Red Heart Super Saver in Peruvian Print

The Peruvian Print yarn was interesting to work with.  There was a really pretty deep teal that only happened once in the whole skein.

  I took a small break from working on octopi to finish some more Worry Worms.  I wasn't sure what projects I wanted to bring on a road trip, so I wanted to travel with an empty stitch holder.  I use one of the really long stitch holders to hold all the worms.  I'm pretty sure I would misplace some if I didn't keep them all together until I can get a picture of them.

  We offered to help some at the Maysville shows that our friend Harlee puts on.  Repo the Genetic Opera was added on Friday this year along with the two Rocky Horror shows on Saturday.  Most of the people helping with the show stayed at the French Quarter Inn.  It's really fancy and has nice tubs to soak in.  We weren't sure about noise and Miss Spud, both noise she could hear and noise she would make during the night.  We stayed at the Lee House Inn.  The rooms are huge and so nice.  When we were heading up to the theatre we saw a stage getting set up and saw them breaking it down when we were done.  We missed the live music, but we saw a few people hanging around still, so they hopefully got a good turn out.

  She did pretty well over the shows we stayed for.  She didn't want to really eat her dinner until we were watching Repo.  She was really squirmy until I put her in her wagon to eat her banana and some snacks.  We only stayed for the first showing of Rocky and she got really grumpy near the end, but it was past her bedtime, so it's understandable.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 17 (0)
Yarn Out: 30 (3)

Total: -13

Some Hats To Spice It Up

Patterns: Crochet Quick and Easy Bucket Hat Tutorial by Bag-O-Day Crochet & Appa Bucket Hat from Avatar by DayannasCreations - Yarn: Caron Big Cakes in Cherry Compote - Hook: 6mm

  I love the ruffles but I'm not sure how to make them stay neat and tidy so that they don't have to be touched up every time.  I also changed which side of the V stitch had the two double crochets to see how that would look.

Pattern: The Kelp Bucket Hat by PassioKnit Kelsie - Yarn: Caron Big Cakes in Cherry Compote - Hook: 6mm

  As I usually do, I messed with the pattern some.  I didn't do all the increases on round 4 and also less increases on the brim.  The way she has it worked out leads to having a very wavey brim, which isn't a bad thing if that is what you are going for.

Pattern: Irish Mesh stitch with a seed stitch border - Yarn: Caron One Pound in White - Needle: US 8

  This was a WIP from a while ago.  When we got our house back in late 2009 I was going to knit some curtains for the upstairs hallway bathroom.  Though the stitch pattern looked nice and lacey on the How-to, I picked the wrong yarn to also get that effect.  I kept working, assuming something might magically change if I kept going.  I was stuck trying to figure out how to hang it in a way that wouldn't stretch anything out, but also allow the thick fabric to be pushed out of the way.

  I had recently found it and moved it out in the open to tell myself to figure out what to do with it.  During the sewage repair the painters broke one of the plastic needles when they moved things around to paint things they didn't need to paint.  That motivated me to just bind it off and say that it is a wrap.  It could also be an angel blanket.

  Also a few more octopi for good measure.

 

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 17 (4)
Yarn Out: 27 (6)

Total: -10

Happy First Birthday!

  Happy first birthday to my sweet and perfect baby.  It's so much fun to see your personality come out as you get bigger.  Your love for Tank knows no bounds and your Dada and I know we come after him if you ever made a tier list of everyone in the house.

  I hope you never lose your easy smile, it is so big and brightens the whole room.  Your giggle makes any situation better, even if you are giggling because you dropped your banana spear on the floor or flooded your highchair with your water bottle.

  You want to have a dance party or drop your friends out of your crib more than go to bed at night right now, but someday will learn that sleep is good for you.  Everyone is impressed by how alert and observant you are and I hope you never lose that either.

  There are so many times, and probably so many more where I wish you wouldn't be quite so loud, but I hope you never lose your voice.

  You don't fully understand causation yet, but you are already good at pranking people.  Turning off computers and unplugging chairs are your current specialties.  You are also an expert at pulling things off the table when we aren't looking.

  You probably won't remember it, but you:

• ate most of a turkey leg

• watched Ses Carny

• tried to eat your tutu

• watched some of the Topsy Turvy show

• ate a quarter of a mixed berry tart

• tried some crab pretzel

• got knighted

• cheered for Sir Keegan during the joust

• went past Bardwin the bard to get to Jacques ze Whipper

• tried to catch a few yellow jackets

  We don't know why we weren't happy to meet the King, but maybe you will come around in the future.  You downed a bottle like it was your job and snored the whole way home.

  You were very delicate when it came to eating your cake and you didn't understand how opening presents worked.  You loved the radio you got from Aunt Fern once we got it opened.  You were also determined to chew on and squeak the baby chick from the bath set my mom brought for you that I used to play with when I was little.

  I think we had a very successful first birthday and look forward to many more.

One Whole Rotation

Week 47:

  While at the cabin Tank and Miss Spud were playing a chasing game.  It consisted of her chasing him around.  When the people outside started to make too much noise he decided to go upstairs.  Miss Spud tried to follow but she either turned around or got distracted because she ended up tumbling down a stair or two.  She was okay, just a bit rattled and scared.  She then aggressively ate some veggies puffs by trying to grab four at a time, I think it helped.

  We tried putting Miss Spud to sleep in the living room of the cabin, but it was too hot so she woke up all sweaty.  We moved her to the bedroom that we used to use for her all the time, but like last time, she did not want to sleep in there.  We put her in something lighter and tried the living room again.  She kept waking up the second we put her down.  I thought that we could try skipping that step.  I crawled in, she got a big smile on her face, and started nursing in her favorite sleeping position.  She had slowed down, so I tried to see if I could disengage since she was still on.  Once off she rolled onto her side so she was more leaned into me.  I had to inch-worm my way out, but she stayed asleep.

  She was a big fan of Bill's pancakes and bacon.  She ate a whole pancake and a few strips of bacon.  At one point she was going to drop a piece of bacon on the floor, then thought better of it and ate it instead.

  She managed to grab the remote for the TV off of a tall side table.  She then turned the TV on, went to Netflix, and started playing Blind Spot.  Bill put on Zootipia for her instead, but she got bored of that after a few minutes, so I watched it instead.

Week 48:

  Since we taught her to splash in some water after her meals, so has started to do it in the pet fountain we got for Tank for the cabin.  She would probably do it to the one we have at home, but she can't reach it.  She has put her feet in it, her dirty hands, and has even taken a drink from it.  I've cleaned it out and changed the water, so hopefully Tank will take a drink, but she keeps doing it.

  She isn't supposed to really learn object permanence until 18 months.  She has a solid grasp on the concept currently.  We can put a phone in our pocket and she will dig it out.  If she has found something she wants in the side pocket of Bill's camping chair, she will check there again later to see if we put it back again.

  Late in the day on Saturday we think Miss Spud got overheated.  She was inhaling strangely and was very upset.  It didn't help that she also developed the worst diaper rash that she's ever had.  We took her into the room with an AC unit, gave her some cool milk, and then let her nurse.  She ended up taking a 20 minute nap, which messed up her sleep schedule, but calmed her down.

  She is getting a lot better at trying to work doors and drawers.  We put a bunch of the baby locks on the cabinets at the cabin.

  At one point after we got home on Monday she was grumping and bonking her head on the sidewall of the underside.  I tried to put my hand between her head and the wood, but she got my finger instead.  I told her to kiss the owwie to make it better, she licked my finger and I said that was close enough.

  Since she was in my lap after having to kiss my owwie, she saw I was wearing my glasses.  When she tried to grab them I flung my head back and went Aaahhhh!  She thought that was great and kept doing it.  I got some hearty tummy laughs out of that.

  I got her a fidget pad because we will be out shopping and she will get bored and want to play and chew on something.  She found it on the table and started playing with it.  The section that you are supposed to use for the keychain loop is tiny and doesn't work easily with the band they give you.  I looped it through the middle and she managed to get it off.  I looped it through again and twisted it back on itself, and she figured out how to get it off again.

  Tank never likes it when I play Just Dance, for some reason he hates dancing.  He must have told Miss Spud about keeping the tall people from dancing.  I was trying to play it and she kept crawling through my legs and giggling.  When she would lay down between my feet I would move away so I didn't step on her.  She would then giggle and chase after me.

  When I was out getting some Italian Seasoning she managed to get a clementine off the table.  She was eating it like an apple.  Bill tried to take it away from her, but she wasn't having it.  When I got home she was eating a bit of the peel.  She didn't seem to mind it.  Eventually she bore a small hole into it and was sticking her thumb in the hole to get some juice to come out.

  On Friday she fell asleep on her own with all of us in the room.  Bill texted and then called for my help after the bottle wasn't enough.  She nursed for a bit but kept kicking and squirming.  I put her in her crib and she was calm about it.  She was going to fuss, but then we gently bonked heads a few times and that made her smile.  After a lot of standing back up and rolling around, she laid on her back.  She looked at her hand before falling asleep.  Usually she's too distracted by making sure we aren't doing something fun without her to fall asleep on her own while we are still there.

"J  , m.     Kcf" - Miss Spud 

Week 49

  She has been going down for her naps a lot easier on her own lately.  It means I get to get some things around the house done, but it also means that I can't use her naps as an excuse to just play on my phone for two hours.

  One of her toys involves putting wide dowels into holes.  She's not quite coordinated enough to do it on her own yet.  She will try a few times but then hand them to me when she can't get them in so she can pull them out again.

  At knitting she impressed everyone with how smart and perceptive she is.  Fara showed her how her frog tape measure worked twice and Miss Spud was pulling it out with no problems.

  On Friday she took three steps all on her own and without holding onto anything.  For a bit now she has been holding onto things and taking side steps or leaning forward and taking a few supported steps.  The last few days she has tried to take a tiny step, but it was more like a shift and hip swing.  We were hanging out in her room before lunch and when I looked at her stand she then tried to take a few steps.  She got three in before she lost her confidence and plopped back down on her butt.

Week 50:

  I gave her some of my lime after I squeezed it into my drink.  She took a taste and looked very concerned about it.  I thought she was going to give it to me, but she kept going back for more.

  I showed her Fish Face and she has been working on it herself.  She is sucking in her cheeks and can get her top lip to look mostly correct.

  Since she got her toy that has a hole for the ball, a sliding top, and two segments to use she has been trying to put things together.  There is a cup that would usually hold a wooden egg, but we don't know where the egg is.  He blue and green wooden balls fit perfectly in it and she has been enjoying that.

  When at home I have my "mom uniform" of a nursing bra and comfy pants.  Lately Miss Spud has been pulling down the front of the bra to see what I'm hiding in there.  She then tries to steal my absorbent pads.

  At Wednesday knit-night she impressed and distracted everyone again.  She tried to beep Lisa's nose, but Lisa didn't understand at first.  She tried to grab anyone's phone she could.  She also took a step for everyone to see while standing on the table.

  I tried giving her some new puff sticks.  She wasn't sure what to make of them at first.  I put one in her mouth to show her they are food, but she never paused to wonder if the TV remote or a business card are food or not.  I went to put my lunch plate away and when I came back she was squeezing one to powder it.  I told her that she was supposed to be eating those and she gave me a big smile before putting a piece in her mouth.

  She is becoming more talkative.  Ah-dadadada is high on the list of fun things to say.  She is also more willing to smile at random people when we are out, but most people still get her Resting Unimpressed Face.

  She's getting more elaborate with her pranks already.  The other day she unplugged the router and also turned off the power strip that connects the lights to the Wi-Fi.  So we plugged the router back in, but were confused why none of our smart lights were online.

  She remembers nursing to sleep on her stomach at the cabin and keeps trying to recreate it at home.  Unfortunately the angles aren't the same, so she usually just ends up squiggling around and can't get comfortable or stay latched.

Week 51:

  She is very good at sharing.  During her breakfast on Saturday she kept giving me Cheerios and puffs to eat.  She would smile and laugh every time I took one she offered and ate it.

  She still loves picking at things on my skin while she nurses or plays.  If I try and turn my head so she can't get to the moles on my neck or face she will turn my head back so she can reach them again.

  I love that she thinks it's hilarious when I squish her thighs.  It will always get a laugh out of her.

  She wants to pay attention to everything but also nurse at night and in the morning.  It means that she keeps popping off.  Sometimes she will sit up, and if she does, then she will fall forward with her mouth open to latch again.  It is so funny to watch.

  We didn't bring her water bottle with us at one point because the plan had been to get things to bring home.  So then I did the trick where you put your finger on top of the straw and let her drink out of the bottom.  She did it a few times, so I offered her the cup with straw.  She opened her mouth and missed the straw but kept going downward, like she was going to try and put her mouth on the edge of the cup or just straight into the water.  I was laughing so hard she managed to get her hand into the cup and grabbed some ice.  That didn't last long before it slipped out of her mouth.

  She is getting better at helping us take off her sleep sack or onesies when we get her changed.  With her sleep sack she will grab the side and pull it away to help take off the shoulder bits or to help step out of it.  With her onesies she will lower and then bend her arm, once it's by her feet she will step out of it.

  On the flip side, she is also now really good at pushing her arms through sleeves.  She will sometimes pull a piece of clothing over her head, like she is trying to pull it on, but doesn't know how to position it correctly.

  She is starting to get better at turning a switch back on if she turns it off.  She doesn't do it all the time and will sometimes just keep switching it back and forth only to end up leaving it off, but it's an improvement.

Week 52: First Part

  Her fine motor skills are getting better.  She got really good at her peg game.  She was able to put them into the holes pretty consistently.  She even hit the side mechanism to make them drop at one point.

  I was getting ready to go to knitting and suddenly the bathroom door burst open.  Someone had seen us use the handle enough times and was finally tall enough to reach it.

  When we offer her something to eat she would reach out to take it and refused to let us feed her for a while.  Lately she'll either try and grab it or just open her mouth with her head tilted up, like a baby bird.  Sometimes from there she will take it back out so she can look at it and put it back on, but other times she will just eat it.